Futures point to flat open, but M&A supports

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures pointed to a flat open on Monday as investors looked ahead to the latest economic data and corporate earnings to give direction to a market near record levels.

While merger and acquisition activity supported the market, there have been a number of high-profile earnings disappointments this quarter, including from Amazon.com and Caterpillar last week. The results pointed to weak conditions for market-moving bellwethers, even as more companies than usual have beaten analyst expectations for both earnings and revenue this quarter.

The S&P 500 ended at a record Thursday but fell on Friday, pressured by Amazon's and Visa Inc's weak results. The benchmark index is less than 1 percent from an all-time intraday record, and on Friday, found support at its 14-day moving average, suggesting a recent positive trend in equities remains intact.

Dollar Tree Inc offered to buy Family Dollar Stores Inc for about $9.2 billion, or $74.50 per share in cash and stock. Shares of Family Dollar jumped 22 percent to $74 in light premarket trading while Dollar Tree was up 3.7 percent to $56.24.

Zillow Inc agreed to buy Trulia Inc for $3.5 billion in stock. Shares of Trulia jumped 16 percent to $65.41 before the bell while Zillow fell 3.1 percent to $153.90 after being halted earlier.

S&P 500 e-mini futures rose 0.5 point and were about even with fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average e-mini futures rose 1 point and Nasdaq 100 e-mini futures rose 5.5 points.

Investors were looking ahead to pending home sales, due at 10:00 a.m. Sales are seen rising 0.5 percent in June, compared with a rise of 6.1 percent in May. Last week, June new home sales fell 8.1 percent, the biggest drop in almost a year.

Financial data firm Markit will release its preliminary July read on the U.S. services sector at 9:45 a.m. That is seen falling to 59.8 from 61 in June. Later this week will see the release of data on second-quarter gross domestic product, as well as the July payroll report.

Cisco Systems Inc shares dipped 0.8 percent to $25.75 before the bell. On Sunday, Pacific Crest downgraded the stock to "sector perform" from "outperform."

El Pollo Loco Holdings Inc , a restaurant chain which went public on Friday, continued the strength of its trading debut, to rise 8.6 percent to $26.10 in premarket trading.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum and Nick Zieminski)

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